Melbourne’s Hard Dance Scene – The great fall and triumphant rise…

Despite what it may have looked to the rest of the country over the last few years, guys, believe it or not, Melbourne WAS the place to be for the harder styles. Even when I was in high school, I’d go to events on Tuesday nights and show up to class the next day. My mind is full of cherished memories of leaving Hard Kandy when it closed at 10-11AM Saturday mornings for weeks on repeat. Bubble? At one stage in 2000-2002, the doors were closing at 6pm Sunday nights. A 20 hour club. Every single week. Come to think of it, if I wanted to I could actually write out a clear schedule demonstrating how Melbournians could rock out from Monday through to Sunday.

Those were some golden times, but with a rise comes a fall and Melbourne’s Hard Dance scene was no exception to this. The fall came on the fateful night of XQlusive Showtek, 2008…

Don’t get me wrong, that wasn’t an isolated incident by any means. Trance Energy in 2009 and Kryal Castle in 2007 aren’t exempt in sullying our reputation either. But, the 20th of December, 2008 is a date that will forever be emblazoned on brains (including mine) should they have been unfortunate witnesses like I was. Sparing you all the actual statistics, the main ingredient in all this mess became the catalyst for the trouble that was to become of the Melbourne scene.

I remember coming up to Sydney in January 2011, to hit up ESCU and Masif with friends that live up there. They actually looked shocked at the end of the week when I announced how amazingly happy I was that I’d spent an entire weekend at two events and hadn’t seen a single ambulance! A LOT of explanation followed this statement!

The unfortunate truth? GHB. Don’t know what it is? Well, you should probably keep it that way.

GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) is a depressant drug that slows down the messages travelling between the brain and body. GBL (gamma butyrolactone) and 1,4-BD (1,4-butanediol) are chemicals that are closely related to GHB. Once GBL or 1,4-BD enter the body, they convert to GHB almost immediately. GHB usually comes as a colourless, odourless, bitter or salty liquid, which is usually sold in small bottles or vials.  At the end of the day, it has ingredients such as Drano and video head cleaner. And people drink this?! Overdoses of GHB have been linked to a number of deaths in Australia. The risk of overdose increases when GHB is combined with other drugs or alcohol. Combining GHB with alcohol can lead to nausea, vomiting and unconsciousness, even at low-dose levels.

I cannot stress enough what that has done to venues, events, people’s lives, worrying friends and families, paramedics and of course, the nurses and doctors treating victims. People have lost friends, families have lost members, hospital staff lost their sanity, venues lost patrons (sometimes close regulars) and events have been closed down permanently. I can honestly say that from 2011-2013 that we had virtually nothing here and I spent majority of my time interstate.

Then, things started looking up miraculously. Don’t ask me how, but they did. The amount of events we have hosted here in Melbourne throughout various different companies has been amazing, it sometimes has almost seemed like the Hard NRG days of old at the Docklands, but that’s a late 90’s-early 2000’s story for another time.

Virtually all the artists that have played in Sydney over the last couple of years have also played here. This however does exclude Hardcore or Happy Hardcore names, due to Melbourne having pretty much no market for it, but I’m working on this! Over the past few years, the scene has taken off hundredfold, almost forming a semblance of what it was in the late 1990’s to early 2000’s. Ask anyone who went to a Hardware, Belfast, EPTAS or Welcome party at the docks can vouch that these were a level of insanity most states have never experienced.  As for the success of Shadows Of Wonderland… Well, that’s on a whole other level.

Hosted by Sydney-based event heavyweights, Shadows Of Wonderland was held here in Melbourne at Festival Hall on April 24^th, 2016. The line-up featured all artists from Midnight Mafia, held the night before in Sydney, excluding Mad Dog & Anime and Darren Styles, Mark Breeze and MC Whizzkid (refer to my previous comment re HC and HHC).  This was the first time that Festival Hall had allowed any form of dance music near it after the Showtek catastrophy in 2008. When I first heard the powers the scene had that allowed this event to move forward, I’m not going to lie, I immediately jumped up and screamed “F^& yeah!” Then a thought came to mind; how do we make this awesome and show everyone that Melbourne is back and patrons can control themselves?

Apart from Trance events such as Gods Kitchen, Subculture and the like, which are held at places such as Hisense, a venue that holds about 15-20,000 people, Shadows Of Wonderland at approx 5000 patrons was the biggest hard dance event in Melbourne in almost 8 years.

Verdict? WE NAILED IT!

Rumour has it that since the event the venue staff were impressed and pleased with the crew and patrons on the night.  Quite sure, before anyone says anything, that there were a few devils amongst the angels. There always will be. But to actually praise our efforts and not complain is a HUGE step up for Melbourne!

I’ve also heard through various people and pages on social media, that they had the time of their lives! I personally posted tickets to people in both Adelaide and Darwin and have friends from Sydney that did the ‘dirty double’ with me (Midnight Mafia and Shadows of Wonderland) who claim that Shadows was actually better!

Personally? I loved both nights and being a massive hardcore and happy hardcore fan from way back brought up some memories. But having such a thing here in my home city?  I still have a massive grin on my face whenever I think about the night and automatically look for Dorothy’s heels.